


Falling Through Water

by wikkythewriter



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, M/M, Might have some angst, Multi Chapter, Not too angsty, Percy is a Prince, annabeth is a pirate captain, grover is on land but will show up in communication, mermaid au, not more than original book, reyna is a pirate captain, well maybe a little more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-29 05:09:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10847106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wikkythewriter/pseuds/wikkythewriter
Summary: Percy is the prince of an underwater kingdom, but doesn't really act like one. He rebels constantly by going up to the surface and on crazy adventures with his mermaid/man friends Piper and Will and his brother Tyson. Annabeth is the captain of the great Argo II and sails the seven seas with her crew, Jason, Rachel, Nico, and Leo. But when their ship is attacked by their nemesis, Jupiter's Revenge, Annabeth gets taken as prisoner. She says some nasty things and gets tossed overboard, into unforgiving waves. Hazel and Rachel begin having terrible visions of large fleets of ships that dry up the ocean and kill millions in their wake. Percy's father, king of his realm, has been acting strange as well, increasing security and sending out small missions to far away seas, none of which have come back alive. Read on to find out if Annabeth gets found, and what these visions of land overtaking sea really mean for the two ships and city beneath the waves.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have to give credit to @/limedumplr for giving me this wonderful idea with one of their beautiful drawings of Percabeth. I'm including their art piece in chapter two to help you guys visualize a scene there. (I will if I can figure out how to add pictures to AO3 because I am having some trouble) 
> 
> Also this chapter is not edited yet, but I will re-post the edited version tomorrow, I just want it up for you guys to read now if you'd like (:

[Art (:](http://limedumplr.tumblr.com/image/160394577406)

Chapter One

The sounds of rain and thunder awoke Annabeth in the middle of the night, her hair was plastered to her neck and her clothes were drenched. She snapped up out of her hammock suddenly, fearing the source of the water might be coming from a leak in the hull. The window above her sleeping area was slamming against the wooden wall and she sighed with relief, her ship wasn’t sinking, the rain had just been let inside by her stupidity to want to keep the window open. 

The captain of Argo II was standing on her tiptoes trying to shut her window when she heard something else, not the sound of the sea fighting the sky, but the sound of her crew...fighting something else. She sucked in a breath and took off running from her cabin. The sharp bolts of lightning every few seconds illuminated a scene she would have rather been blind to. A few yards away, sloshing sloppily around in the waves, was her enemy ship, Jupiter’s Revenge. If she squinted hard enough she could see it’s captain, tall and dark haired, haloed by her purple cape, standing at the bow.  Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano and Annabeth Chase had been rivals as long as she could remember. Not that they had any vendetta’s against each other, if anything Annabeth and her crew had a much stronger vendetta against Reyna’s first mate, Octavian. From what the Argo II’s crew could tell, Reyna and Jupiter’s Revenge weren’t very fond of him either. Rumor was that his father had paid for the building of the ship, on the condition that Octavian received a highly prized position on board.

The blond haired captain swung around, diverting her eyes from the enemy ship, to get a headcount of her own crew. Nico was standing at the side of the ship, a dark scowl on his face and his sharp black sword at his side. Rachel was next to him, though standing considerably back from the weapon. Her fiery hair flew around her face in thick curls, but the red was swirling with wisps of green smoke emanating from Rachel’s eyes. When Annabeth saw the green glow coming from Rachel, she knew they were in trouble, the enchantress never used her powers unless she really had to. Annabeth saw Leo, the mastermind behind the building of the ship, fidgeting with something at the figurehead of the ship, his small hands moving like lightening. Looking up she saw a bit of blond hair poke out from the top of the mast and took a breath of relief, her whole crew was onboard, and safe. 

“Jason!” Annabeth yelled, directing her voice upward to the birds nest, “what can you see? When did they arrive?” She was hoping that all of her crew could stay safe and not antagonize the other ship by shooting cannons or arrows at them, at least until she devised a plan. Jason, the tall blond haired scout who was infatuated with heights, swung down from a rope attached to the mast, a very serious look on his face. “They found us again about 5 minutes ago, they’ve already tried to shoot at us, the sound of the cannon woke me up, but they missed.” 

Annabeth looked toward the ship and saw their muscle aiming the cannon. Frank Zhang was half a foot taller than even Jason, making Annabeth’s crew look like pixies compared to Reyna’s, where the only person shorter than 5’6” was Hazel (coming in at 5’1” she was significantly shorter than the rest of them). Despite Frank’s size he was probably one of the best shots Annabeth had ever seen, better with an arrow but not half bad with the large cannons either. The fact that he had missed when he shot at them wasn’t surprising though, as far as the Argo II could tell, Frank Zhang was the least violent of the entire crew, and wouldn’t maim unless he had to. 

Octavian, a tall wispy thing of a boy, similar in stature and color to a scarecrow, was standing above Frank, shoving his shoulder every couple seconds with a disappointing look on his face. If it was up to him, he would have probably set their ship on fire and sunk it ages ago. But Reyna wouldn’t let him kill anyone unnecessarily, they’re goal was to steal the Argo II and its crew, not obliterate them completely. Frank put a large hand against Octavian’s chest aggressively, pushing him back. 

Annabeth’s eyes  scanned over the rest of the enemy crew , slipping quickly over Calypso, who while not to be underestimated, being slim and not excessively skilled in weaponry, was the least dangerous of the bunch. As far as Annabeth could tell they had picked up Calypso from her kingdom as a favor to her father, whom Reyna had worked for previously. The princess however, had proven to be helpful in navigating the ship and helping it go at speeds faster than ever before. That explains how the Jupiter’s Revenge had found them so quickly, but also means Calypso isn’t much of a threat in close quarters combat. 

Annabeth saw Hazel Levesque standing on her boat directly across from Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a silvery smoke coming out of the dark skinned girl’s palms. Hazel was the Jupiter’s Revenge enchantress, and a powerful one at that. Annabeth had first hand seen Rachel take down entire fleets of ships with her green mist, predicting their every move and lifting all their treasure out of the sinking ships with just a look. But the first time they faced off against Reyna’s ship, Hazel had made an equal opponent. Watching the metallic smoke from Jupiter’s Revenge and the green mist from the Argo II was like watching a battle of the cosmos, each woman with her arms outstretched and eyes wide open, not moving a muscle.  But tonight Hazel kept her silver and gold smoke close to her hands, every couple seconds glancing worriedly over at where Frank was manning the cannons. 

“Leo, what are you doing by Festus?” Annabeth questioned, gesturing to the dragon figurehead Leo was working on feverently. He looked up quickly, but went back to his work as he replied, “I’m enhancing Festus, he should be able to shoot these super hot flame cannons from his jaw...if I can just…”  Leo paused cursing loudly as a small flame shot out, dousing his arm. “Bingo! See, now when I just press… this button” he pointed to a button behind Festus’s ear, “it’ll shoot out flaming cannons right into that stupid ship's hull.” He grinned manically mentioning the destruction it might cause to Reyna’s ship, and Annabeth smiled back at him. 

“Good job Leo, keep your mind on the boat okay, but don’t aim for Octavian this time, you’ll be more likely to sink the ship if you aim for the ship itself.” Annabeth chided, stepping over to Rachel. Putting her hand on Rachel’s arm, the ginger started, “I can see it Annabeth, we lose someone tonight. We don’t win this time.” She looked worried.

Annabeth put her other hand on Rachel’s other shoulder, pulling her close so she could look her in the eyes, “It’s going to be okay, your visions aren’t always true Rachel, remember that time you said I would marry a fish? How accurate do you think that was?” Rachel smiled smally. “Now, I want you to keep your eyes on Hazel okay? You are the only one who can match her powers, I need all your energy focused on her if we’re going to win.”

Annabeth looked at her crew, raising her voice she yelled to her whole crew, “Guys this is not the time to destroy Jupiter’s Revenge, we need to keep them around long enough so they bring us to their treasure. All we want to do tonight is sail away from them safely. I am not risking any of your lives for a poorly built ship. Understood?” Her crew nodded at her in turn, Nico looking most disappointed about the lack of fighting. 

The rain suddenly picked up from a drizzle to a downpour, and with the next flash of lightning an arrow thudded into their mast, inches from Jason’s head. He stepped quickly to the side, a look of anger and shock on his face. Leo came running over, screaming obscenities at Frank on the other boat. Nico raised his sword in the direction of the other boat, his dark eyes gleaming. 

“Annabeth! You need to see this!” Leo yelled frantically from the mast. He was trying to pry the arrow out of the wood, but to no avail. Attached to the end of the arrow was something gleaming gold, like string, except intricately woven out of metal. Annabeth took out her dagger and tried to slash the rope as quickly as she could, but aside from a loud metallic clang, nothing happened. Within seconds two more people were on their ship. 

Octavian held a dangerously long sword in each hand, and though he looked slightly top heavy, he was dangerous. Nico suddenly stepped into his path, his black sword clashing with Octavian's. The dark haired boy sliced cleanly into Octavian's arm, causing a sharp scream to rip through the air. The scarecrow sidestepped out of the way of Nico’s next slash, but Nico rolled onto the floor and swiped his legs out from under him. Octavian fell to the wooden floor with a thud, and Nico held his dark sword at the blond boy’s throat. Leo pressed the figurehead, and two flaming cannonballs hit the Jupiter’s Revenge.  

Annabeth was going to congratulate Nico and Leo when someone grabbed her, pulling her biceps together behind her back. “Shoot Now Frank!” Reyna yelled across the rain and wind, and suddenly arrows, went flying onto the deck. Some were flaming, though, like Leo’s cannon, the rain rendered them useless. Others were pointed with sharp metal, and one was coming straight toward Rachel’s head. Nico was the closest to her and he risked letting Octavian free to slice the arrow in half, it was less than an inch away from the enchantress’s face when it fell to the ground in pieces. The ginger took a step back, shocked out of her trance the green mist around her was fading. 

Octavian flipped up onto his feet and stood next to Reyna, his sword at Annabeth’s throat. Jason and Nico took a step forward, their swords raised against Reyna and Octavian. “Don’t come any closer” Reyna barked in their direction, tightening her grip on Annabeth and Octavian pushed his sword closer to her throat, causing blood to blossom at the base of her neck. Annabeth didn’t scream, she only looked  definitely at Octavian, pushing hard against Reyna. But her grip wasn’t letting up. 

Through the clouds and rain of the storm Annabeth saw something else that worried her. With Rachel out of commision after the arrow attack, metallic smoke was forming on the hull of the Argo II. “Jason, whatever happens, keep this ship running okay, keep our crew safe. Nico! Get Rachel Below deck, hurry up! Leo, follow the-” She was cut off when the smoke had climbed it’s way further and further up the boat, enveloping everything as it went. Leo went down first, as the shortest of the crew the smoke reached his lungs first and he collapsed. Rachel and Nico were second, falling to the ground, almost soundlessly under the thundering skies. Annabeth looked at Jason with urgency.  _ Keep them safe. I will get back to you.  _ She mouthed at him, and as soon as he nodded in understanding, the smoke reached his face, and he fell unconscious as well. 

Hazel had conveniently left a bubble of clean air around her captain and first mate, leaving Annabeth awake as well. She screamed. “What did you do? You filthy swine!” Annabeth directed her voice at Octavian and Hazel. Reyna pulled all Annabeth’s weapons free from her belt, save the dagger she had hidden in her boot. “They aren’t dead Annabeth. We aren’t all mindless monsters.” Reyna quipped as she looked at Octavian pointedly. “We do have to take you though.” The captain of Jupiter’s Revenge began tying ropes around Annabeth’s arms, binding them to her side. “I would advise you against speaking though, Octavian has a bit of a temper that I can’t always control.” 

The blond captain took Reyna’s word for it. Annabeth knew she couldn’t run away even if she tried, one step to the left or right and she would find herself over her head in Hazel’s strange magic, and she’d get captured anyway. It was safer, and gave her more time to bide an escape if she went willingly. Octavian went back to Jupiter’s Revenge first, swinging over on the golden rope. And Reyna, with Annabeth tied on in front of her went over second. The wind and sea whipped dangerously around the girls as they swung to the other ship, Annabeth’s boot, the one with her dagger, slipped off her foot and fell into the dark waves. Annabeth screamed, but soon they had landed safely on its deck.

Hazel, Calypso, and even Frank stepped back in fright when Annabeth looked at them. Over her years on the sea she had perfected a glare worse than any other, turning her grey eyes dark and stormy, and this was proof that it really worked striking fear into the hearts of her enemies.

She was thrown harshly into a cell below deck by Reyna, who looked at her with contempt. “See I really didn’t think you would go that easily Chase. When we were younger you always got the upper hand on me. It’s nice to see a differe-” 

She was cut off by Calypso rushing down to the hull. “Reyna! The storm is rough out there, as soon as you two got over we lost our eyes on the Argo II. We might sink Reyna, we need all hands on deck.” The darked haired captain looked back at the blonde one, “We’ll save this for tomorrow Chase, nice to be on a boat with you again.” Her purple cape and dark hair billowed behind her as they climbed back on deck. 

Annabeth shivered in the damp air, her mind drifting to her crew. The smoke that made them collapse, she had never seen anything like that before, even from Rachel. Hazel, the young girl that she was, took consciousness away from four people.  _ They aren’t dead. Reyna said they weren’t dead.  _ Annabeth had to keep repeating the mantra in her head to stop from going mad. The cut from her neck had stopped bleeding, but her shirt was bright crimson with her blood, and the cut still burned like fire. The harsh ropes cutting into her wrists and thighs, coupling with the thoughts of her crew, distracted her from forming a plan to get out of the cell. Annabeth shivered as she drifted in and out of sleep. 

_ Blue light shone over the whole scene. And Annabeth looked around, seeing spires of coral and stone surrounding her. She heard a noise like bubbles coming from her left, underneath an arch like formation of coral and kelp. A glowing light was emanating from beyond the kelp forest and Annabeth moved toward it. She felt like she was floating through what she now assumed was water, and as she got closer to forest the louder the bubbling sound became. She stepped into the kelp and grabbed at her throat. She couldn’t breath. Her throat was closing up, filling with water. The sea floor below her vanished. It was like she was being sucked into the abyss, the blue light leaving her eyes. Annabeth couldn’t move. The bubbles were so loud now that she couldn’t hear her own heart beat, they were popping in her ears and with each pop she fell further and further down. Suddenly the bubbles stopped and something beautiful rang out through all the coral, kelp and water and cleared her ears. It was a laugh, a boys laugh, and she stopped falling. Annabeth was floating up now, toward the sound of the laugh, and the navy was brightening, turning a light red. But she still couldn’t breath, she could feel her chest burning and felt something grab her wrist.  _

Annabeth woke with a start, not quite knowing where she was. She frantically looked around her room. Her ponytail had fallen in her face and when she reached to push it out of her eyes she realized her hands were bound behind her back. She remembered where she was, under the deck of Jupiter’s Revenge. She looked out the small porthole on the side of her cell, and saw that it was still dark outside. Annabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she needed to focus before anyone came down to try and break her. 

The blond prisoner heard footsteps coming quickly down the ladder and turned toward the noise, a defiant look on her face. She was surprised when she saw lanky limbs and blond straw-like hair coming down the rungs. Octavian smiled wickedly at Annabeth, his swords at his sides. 

“What? You think you that we were going to actually let you relax Annabeth? You’re the captain of the Argo II, you guys destroyed my father’s fleet!” He walked up close to her cell and held onto the bars. Annabeth stood up as best she could, with her legs and arms tied together, and stared him straight in the eye. “Your father deserved it! He was using that fleet to attack innocent islands Octavian!” 

He looked at her with disgust, “it’s about the gold Annabeth, these islands were sitting on piles of it.” Annabeth spat in his face and bared her teeth. “Octavian you are a useless, arrogant, monstrous rat! You hurt my crew, and you would’ve killed them if Reyna hadn’t stopped you. She’s in charge because you could never be a leader, you don’t have the balls. You stoop to the level of trickery and bullying that you do because you don’t have the leadership and fighting skill it takes to man a crew.” The captain knew she probably shouldn’t have said what she did, shouldn’t have provoked the most volatile crew member on board. 

Octavian unlocked her cell and stepped in, he pulled her up by the ropes around her torso and hit her face. His knuckles hit her cheekbone and she felt something crack beneath his hand. He let go of her ropes and she fell to the ground, hitting her head on a sharp corner of wood on the floor. Annabeth opened her eyes faintly, but everything was blurry. She saw Octavian reach down and put his arms around her, she tried to protest, but her head throbbed hard enough that she couldn’t get any of her limbs working. “Let go of me,” Annabeth mumbled quietly, “Reyna! He-” Annabeth tried to yell, but Octavian smacked her cheek. “Shut up!” He snapped as he ripped off a piece of her shirt. He tied it around her mouth to act as a gag, and carried her up the ladder. 

Annabeth could feel the rain pelting down on her, blood from the wound on her head was being flooded into her eyes and she couldn’t see anything. She assumed they were on the main deck because of the rain, but the fact that Octavian brought her up here meant that everyone else was asleep, meaning there was no one there to save her. “I guess I’ll just have to tell Reyna that you escaped somehow Chase. You won’t be here, won’t be alive, when she wakes up.” He sneered gruesomely down at her as he let go of her. Annabeth was doing her best to balance on the ship’s rail trying to lean back into the boat, but Octavian gave her a small push and Annabeth went tumbling over the side. 

She entered the water with a cold splash. The dark waves closing in around her. She tried to swim back to the surface but couldn’t move much at all with her arms and legs tied up. Annabeth tried to relax, freaking out and moving around would do nothing but waste what was left of her oxegen. She expected the water around her to get darker and darker the further she sank under the waves, but she thought she saw some green light glowing some meters underneath her. Annabeth’s mind was getting foggier and foggier and her chest burned more with each foot as she sank further. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth is floating down to the sea. Now we get to explore what under the waves looks like, and follow some mermaids around as they have cool adventures, get in lots of trouble, and have terrible dreams. Will is in a premed classes, Piper loves humans and exploring her world, Tyson is head blacksmith and a prince, and his brother Percy is a rebellious mermen who has been having strange, concerning dreams. Will Annabeth be found? Will percy tell his friends about his dreams? Read on to find out (:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter turned out to be much much longer than I had intended, but I felt like I had to fully explain their underwater world as well as some plot points that happened in the chapter.

Chapter Two

 

“Come on Percy! Yesterday while you were in a council meeting I found this wicked cave system. You can ride the tunnels like slides!” Piper swam around excitedly a few yards ahead of Percy and his brother. Tyson yelled, “Incoming!” right before a gold and orange flash slammed into Percy’s back. 

“Hey Will, where’ve you been?” Percy questioned the boy who’d tackled him with a smile, Will was almost always late for everything, and everyone usually could guess why. “Oh, I was testing out some knew kelp anti-inflammatories I found from last week when we saved that sea turtle from the kelp forest.” Will was studying to become a medic for Poseidon's army, and he spent any second he wasn’t exploring, helping people in the infirmary or creating semi-dangerous experiments in his dorm room. 

“Well did they work?” Piper asked Will, arching her eyebrow. And a rainbow blur swam from the castle to the group within seconds, “Rainbow!!” Tyson exclaimed loudly. Rainbow was the only stable animal that liked Percy’s older brother enough to let him ride her. Tyson was a good foot taller than the rest of them, and had a muscled build and a powerful tail. He was one of his dad’s best blacksmiths and ran the forge, despite his young age. But that meant that most of the seahorses and hippocampi in the stables steered clear of him. The oversized hippocampus stopped right in front of Tyson and started licking his face excitedly. Something that made Piper and Percy gag jokingly. 

“You fixed his tail Will.” Percy said giving him an encouraging pat on the back. On their last adventure away from the castle the half-horse half-fish creature had run straight through a jagged opening in a sunken ship’s hull, and sliced up his tail pretty badly. 

“So Piper, where are these crazy caves you’re so keen on showing us?” Percy questioned the mermaid with a smile. He had known the dark skinned, pale silver-pink tailed mermaid for as long as he could remember. Her mom was one of his dad’s closest lieutenants and they grew up together as if they were siblings.

She looked ready to race the boys down the courtyard when they heard Tyson laughing loudly a few yards away. He had been chasing Rainbow around the algae fields while the group had been talking. “Tyson? You coming with us bro?” Percy yelled to his brother, who looked back at him with a huge toothy grin, “Not today brother! Have to play with Rainbow!” He grabbed the hippocampus’ mane and they rode off, spinning in circles around the castle grounds. 

Percy smiled and looked to Piper and Will, “Looks like it’ll just be us three today guys.” He looked to the merteens and winked at Will, suddenly they were off, Percy’s powerful red tail pulsing through the currents and Will’s fast shimmery orange one leaving a trail of bubbles in his wake. 

“Hey Guys!” Piper yelled at them yards ahead of her, “You don’t even know where you’re going!” She pushed off from her spot on the castle grounds and sped past the gates, her white tail blending with the foam she was conjuring up behind her, and within seconds she found herself feet in front of the boys who were laughing maniacally. “You have got to stop racing away like that. You know in any real race I would make you guys eat my bubbles.” She smirked and the boys finally stopped their fitful hysteria. 

“Okay Beauty Queen, so where do we go from here?” Will asked impatiently, his tail flicking around behind him. Piper motioned them to follow her and they tore off to the right, straight toward the thick kelp forest where Will had found the medicinal plant. The giant oarweed stalks and bright green popkelp grew dozens of feet above them as they swam further and further into the forest. At one point Percy saw three hammerhead swim next to them, after a short greeting to the prince and what looked like a bow, the sharks swam away. The light being let in from the surface was fading as they ventured further and further into the forest. Percy wasn’t sure how much time had passed, and Will was looking a bit bored and exhausted when the forest plants started to thin. Heavy cold rock took the place of the rockweed bushes, and clear royal blue water replaced the seaweed growing over their heads. 

They had stepped into a scene more surreal than anything they’d seen before, which was impressive considering these teens had swam miles across the ocean to visit the bahamas, swam with orcas in greenland, and visited the sunken titanic in the Atlantic, all without the King’s knowledge of course. But this astonishing scene, right in their backyard of the clear mediterranean, shocked them more than any of that. 

The seafloor below them dropped what looked like thousands of feet and across the chasm a large mountain rose out of the depths. Sections of the rock seemed to glow with an aqua colored algae and abalone shells seemed to be scattered in every nook and cranny on the stone. Right in the middle of the mountain was a small cut out of rock, shaped into what looked like a mother whale facing left, and underneath her the calf facing right. Piper swam ahead of the boys, directly over chasm and straight into the mother-calf cutout of rock. Her silvery tail echoed the look of the abalone shell and her dark carmely skin matched some of the rock, so aside from the glowing aqua, she almost totally blended into the stone. 

“You want us to go over there Pipes?” Percy asked her, raising an eyebrow. “Like, into the ominous rock formation that leads to who-knows-where?” Piper laughed slightly at his hesitation, “Percy, are you… scared?” He was usually reckless and impulsive, as everyone in the castle knew, but this scene looked worryingly like a recurring dream he’d been having recently, a dream he didn’t want to tell anyone about. Percy took a deep breath and swam across the abyss, followed closely by Will. 

“I am so ready for some kick-ass slides Piper!” Will said excitedly, pumping his fist into the water above his head. 

As they entered the dimly lit cave near the top of the rock structure Percy couldn't shake this gnawing feeling that something was going to happen. He looked over and saw the excitement on his friends faces and tried to bury the thought, he was here to have fun, just because he was having dreams of a place didn't mean anything, Piper looked at him and gave a light punch on the shoulder. “Come on  _ your highness _ ” she said with a wink, mocking a bow, don't tell me you're too scared for a little slide?” she asked challengingly. 

At this Will burst into laughter, “come on man this is nothing, that sunken ship was more dangerous than this!” Percy grinned widely and punched Will’s shoulder, “yeah only because you thought it would be funny to push it down the crevasse!” The prince shouted. 

“Yeah so? It was funny!” Will fired back. Percy sighed, but smiled slightly, “ yeah yeah yeah, just next time make sure we are actually outside the ship.” “But that's what made it so funny! You should have seen your faces!” Will started laughing thinking back to the memory.

“Anyway,” Piper said, pointedly ignoring the arguing boys,  “follow me, it's just up here” the mermen followed her further into the cavern and finally came to a fork in the road. “You sure you know where you’re going Piper?” Will asked hesitantly, and Percy punched him in the shoulder, “see, you’re scared too aren’t you Will?” The prince teased. 

 “Here, it’s this one” Piper said looking back at the boys, and without another word she jumped in head first, Will and Percy could hear her yells of excitement echoing off the walls, fading as she slide further and further into the structure. 

“Dibs on next!” Will yelled already launching himself into the entrance, and as Percy backed up preparing himself to go down the slide something caught his eye just inside the other tunnel, it was a tall leather boot, he picked it up and inspected it, wondering how it had gotten here. This cave wasn’t exactly in the path of many ships. 

His question was answered when a massive crab came rushing toward him, “what are you doing in my house? Hey that's mine!” the creature belowed. Without thinking Percy rushed back to the other cave and jumped down the slide. He felt his stomach in his throat as he sped down going faster and faster, a sharp left followed by a sharp right, just as Percy thought he would lose his lunch the slide spit him out into the open ocean on the side of the rock formation, he gained his bearings just in time to see his friends pointing and laughing. 

“You should have seen your face!” Will managed to get out between laughs. And Percy scowled gently,  “eat corral Will, I bet you nearly shit yourself, and Pipes, next time, be sure that your adventure doesn't bring us into the house of a giant crab.” Piper got a worried look on her face, “a what? Are you okay?” She asked worryingly. Large marine animals were common this far down in the ocean, but Percy’s dad, Poseidon, usually had control over the unruly aggressive ones and made them move out of his kingdom. And this crab was definitely unruly and aggressive. 

“Yeah I'm fine” Percy said, looking nervously back up the chute that he had just slide out of.  “Is that what took you so long?” Will asked with a hint of worry in his voice. “Yeah, well that and I found this boot” Percy said holding up the leather boot that belonged to the crab. Will gave a sigh of relief, but smirked at Percy through the corner of his mouth. “By Neptune’s left nut you found a boot? Wow that is so interesting. Do tell us more” Will said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. 

“What's so special about a boot?” Piper asked. “Well nothing, I don't know I just feel like I've seen this before, somewhere” Percy strained to remember but he couldn't think of anything. That had been happening a lot too, Piper said it was something humans called deja vu? Like feeling like you’ve  experienced something before? He felt like he had been to this cave system before, he remembered holding something in his arms, but it had felt bigger than a boot. Percy shook his head to rid the confusing thought, his black hair shook raggedly in the water and Piper looked worriedly at him. He handed her the boot to put in her sail fabric bag for safe keeping. “Hold onto it for me until we get back to the castle Pipes?” She reluctantly nodded her head. 

Percy , Piper, and Will could feel the vibration of sea horses galloping through the sea and coral fields. They looked at each other with fear on their faces, the teens knew that they had been caught. “Quick you guys’ get back to the castle, before he sees you” Percy said under his breath. They knew it was his father racing through the waves to bring Percy back to the castle. Without question, but with a worried look, Piper and Will quickly swam back in the direction of the castle. 

Poseidon sat atop a giant hippocampus, his steed was wicked in it’s black and white orca coloring. On either side of the king stood mermen, on swift seahorses and each holding a jagged spear the castle guards looked menacing. And next to one was Blackjack, Percy's favorite mare, she had been his seahorse since they were both kids, and they had bonded significantly over the years. 

Percy looked to the ground as his father dismounted, his voice booming with anger, “What by the gods were you thinking Perseus! I made it very clear that you are not to come out here without my express permission, I am disappointed in you son, not only putting your life at risk but your friends lives as well. You know that we have the guards patrolling the castle for a reason son. Ever since we lost your mother I can’t risk losing you too.” His father’s voice broke as he spoke the last sentence. 

Percy swam up so that he could look his father in the eye. But the guards followed closely behind him, the safety of their king was their top priority after all. It didn’t matter if that meant pinning down the famed prince. The prince ignored the burning feeling in his eyes and the lump in his throat when he spoke to the king. 

“You don’t have a right to talk about her! If you had just been around, just paid attention to  _ your family  _ instead of your  _ precious little kingdom _ then maybe she would still be here. She was the one who was there whenever I needed someone, and when we needed you, needed your army to protect us… You weren’t there dad!” Percy was fuming. It had been two years since they lost his mom, and almost weekly he would have a shouting match with his dad. It wasn’t always about his mother, and when it was they would take turns blaming each other. Tyson usually stayed out of these arguments, but it meant that he would usually ignore his father all together, unless he had to talk to him about strictly kingdom/armory business. Ever since their mom died, the whole family had been broken. Blackjack swam over to Percy, her tail protectively wrapping around him. 

Poseidon flinched noticeably on Percy’s last syllable and opened his mouth to speak.  But he couldn’t think of anything to say. His son have never so directly accused him of her death before. Of course everyday he thought about what he could’ve down to protect him if he had been there. But when his son blamed him, well he’d never been this angry. Poseidon tried to speak again, but sighed. 

Percy grabbed Blackjack reins and swung onto her back. “Come on girl,” he said, his voice breaking as he blinked tears out of his eyes. They usually blended in with the saltwater around him so he could play it off as if he wasn’t crying. But sometimes when it got really bad his eyes would get puffy and the tears would leave pockets of extra hot water around his eyes. Blackjack whinnied with what sounded like pain in her voice and they sped into the forest. He heard the sounds of his dad and the guards yell and start chasing him. He squeezed his sea horse’s sides and they took off faster, and suddenly they were out of the kelp forest, and the castle rose up in front of them. 

The prince rushed past the front door guards, pushing waves of water into them and they toppled over on their sides. Percy rode Blackjack up to her stables, letting her in her room swiftly. He grabbed a handful of shrimp and tossed them to his mare. She whinnied thankfully before Percy took off again, racing to his room. The prince was in the hallway when his father caught up with him. Poseidon was waiting in front of Percy’s door to his bedroom with a serious look on his face. 

The merteen pushed passed his father, shoving him to the side aggressively. Percy wouldn’t look Poseidon in the eye and shoved away from the fatherly attempts to console him. He slammed his bedroom door in his father’s face, causing the abalone material to quivver. The king imitated his son’s door and began shaking with anger. He sighed audibly, giving up the topic of his wife, Percy’s mom. Poseidon took a step back and spoke to his son through the door. His voice didn’t hold any emotion, and sounded more like a king reprimanded a servant than a father reprimanding his son, “Stay in your room Percy. You’ve lost my trust to even roam around the castle now. We have a council meeting tomorrow, so be ready in the morning.” 

Percy slammed his fist on the seastone door after his father left.  _ It wasn’t fair that just because he was Prince he had to follow all these rules. He didn’t ask to be royalty. Will and Piper’s parents let them explore away from the castle, so why couldn’t his dad just understand?  _ Percy thought angrily to himself as he flopped down on his bed, his red tail anxiously swarming at the foot of it. Blackjack neighed nervously at Percy’s window. The seahorse had had her stable moved to directly next to Percy’s room when she had started attacking her stable mates and escaping just to check on him. 

“Hey girl, “ Percy cooed as he swam up to her, stroking her muzzle slowly. He opened the locked window so the mare could poke her head through,  “it’s okay, I’m not mad at you, I just… I don’t understand my dad sometimes. He won't let me leave the castle at all now…” Percy yawned, slowing his words down significantly. Blackjack snorted at him, her eyes looking accusingly from the merman to his bed. “I guess you’re right girl, maybe I do need some sleep. Percy went back to his bed and fell onto his stomach, his tail swirling slowly before falling to the bed as well. His back rose and fell with each breath, and Blackjack looked pleased with herself that she had convinced her master to get some much needed rest. 

Percy’s sleep wasn’t quite restful however, his dreams drifted from froliking with Blackjack thorugh the grounds, to chasing a pod of dolphins with Tyson, Will and Piper, to something much darker.  _ Percy was in thick kelp, oarweed and algae growing up around him, and with each push of his tail he got tangled in some new forest plant. Percy sighed as he reached down to pull off a bit seaweed from his tail. He looked around and saw to his left, the blue glow of the castle, and to his right, the darker colors of the forest and chasm beyond it. He was swimming back to his home when he heard a blood curdling scream coming from deeper in the forest, closer to the chasm. He tried to race toward it but the harder he tried to swim the more he got pulled out of the forest. Percy gripped onto the passing kelp and tried to pull himself closer to the sound of the scream. It was a girl's voice, and she sounded terrified. Percy started moving slowly through the forest, using all of his strength to try and get closer to the girl’s voice. But the closer he got the sound of her voice the more the light seemed to leave the waves around him. He could hear here almost screaming directly in his ears now, but couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. Percy reached out blindly, trying to grab her a pull her away from whatever was making her scream. His hand reached around what felt like a wrist and suddenly an aqua light blared around them, so bright that he still couldn’t see anything at all. _

Percy woke with a start, his heart pounding in his chest and his breath jagged. Blackjack whinnied attentively from her window, startled by Percy screaming himself awake. His seahorse was grunting, trying to pull at her reins, sh e looked at Percy then towards the right of the castle, where the kelp forest was . The girls scream echoed in the Prince’s mind and he knew what he had to do. Percy swam quickly to his window, where he slipped  out into his seahorse’s stall. The merman grabbed Blackjack’s reins and swung himself onto her back. He knew his father would be disappointed if he found out he left the castle again, but Percy had a feeling that the dream he’d just had was more than just a dream, and if she was out there he had to help her. It was his job to protect the people of his father’s kingdom anyway wasn’t it. And if he knew an innocent mermaid was in trouble he couldn’t just ignore it. 

“Giddyup girl” Percy said quietly into Blackjack’s ear, and then they took off. He led his seahorse around a few castle corners and down an abandoned passageway before they were out of the castle, and the pair raced through the currents, toward the kelp forest. The seahorse seemed to have much less trouble navigating the tangling forest than Percy did, so he let her do the work. The merman noticed something very strange as they swam through the forest, it seemed like dozens of sharks were racing them, not even paying the prince any mind. A large pod of hammerhead passed Percy on his right, and two tiger sharks were powering through the water on his left. He usually hated the fact that he was the king’s son, as it led to almost everyone in his father’s realm, fish and merperson alike, stop him to bow or grovel wherever he went. But none of the sharks were doing that, the way they were all swimming, it looked extremely instinctual, and then Percy realized why. His nose caught on to the same sent all of the sharks must have been following, blood.

“Blackjack, hurry!” Percy yelled as they sped through the forest and out on the other side, right in front of the chasm. The water was tinged a strange red color, like someone had spilled a bottle of crimson ink into a glass. It looked as if the metallic red was draining down from the surface so Percy looked up. 

It took his eyes a few seconds to fully adjust to what he was seeing. A form was sinking down in the waves, someone with blond hair, tanned skin, and… two legs? Percy’s mind did a double take on what he was truly seeing and his body sprang up from his place on his sea horse's back. He swam as quickly as his red tail let him, to reach the human girl. 

She had a rope binding her arms to her back and another tying her legs together, only one of which was wearing a boot. But the most shocking part of all wasn’t her mismatched footwear, the bindings around her mouth and body, or even the fact that she was human, as they had seen plenty of two legged corpses drift down into their realm in the past; it wasn’t even the large slice at her neck that seemed to have spilled blood all over her shirt, the jagged wound staining her hair red, or the purple and blue swollen mark across her cheekbone,no,  the thing that shocked Percy the most was her eyes. Bright and open, Percy was shocked to see two fully conscious and alive grey eyes staring at him. 

The human girl writhed around in the water, her eyes turning to a look of desperation. In the aqua blue light that turned the bloody water a strange purple color, Percy saw that the girl’s skin around the mouth gag was beginning to match the color of the water around her. It was turning a pale purple from lack of oxygen. The merman prince quickly put one arm around her waist to stop her from sinking into the chasm, and another hand on her face. She tried to squirm away kicking at him with her legs, but he wrapped his tail around them. 

“Calm down,” Percy said urgently, trying to remember the exact technique he learned in school to conjure an air bubble. “Hold still, I’m- I’m trying to help you” Percy stuttered slightly, with fear that because of his lack of focus in school he might have to watch someone, human or not, die in his arms tonight. He was trying to keep her gaze on his while he wracked his brain for the skill, but her eyes were starting to flutter.  _ Please work.  _ He thought to himself silently as her eyes closed and her body went slightly limp. But then what looked like a thin, clear balloon started blossoming out from the hand he had placed on the face of the girl, whom based on her outfit, he now assumed was a pirate. Her eyes were still closed and Percy’s heart was hammering faster and faster in his chest. He moved his palm from her face to her neck, right above her wound, and could still feel a small but steady heartbeat. It didn’t look like the girl was breathing though. 

Percy silently thanked Piper and her obsession of humans, or he may have never learned how to save a drowning one, but he floated down to the sea floor as quickly as he could, laid the pirate down, and started to work. He pinched her nose, and opened her mouth, trying to push all his doubtful thoughts out of his head.  _ He was a fish, what if his lungs didn’t have enough oxygen in them to save her, what if he couldn’t save her.  _ Suddenly, his mouth centimeters from hers, the blonde coughed painfully, and bloodied salt water came tumbling out of her mouth.  _ I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t have to kiss her.  _ He thought wryly,  _ father wouldn’t be too pleased with that.  _

Percy looked back at the girl, expecting her to be awake and screaming, but all her coughing seemed to have done was revive her breathing, not her consciousness. She lay still against the ocean floor, the thin layer of air Percy had conjured her the only thing between her and the water. Her wounds seemed to have begun bleeding profusely when she’d hacked up the water however, worrying Percy severely. 

Blackjack came swimming over, neighing uncontrollably at this point, causing Percy to swim up and give her a calming stroke, “Hush Blackjack, we don’t want to alert anyone that we’re out here. I wasn’t supposed to leave the castle and neptune knows my dad would not be happy if he saw me with a human, or even knew a human was in his realm for that matter. Please girl, I know you’re worried, but please be quiet.” He stroked her over a few times until she seemed to have calmed down. 

“Now…” Percy questioned his seahorse directly, “do you think you can help me carry her back to the castle? Yes, yes I know she isn’t allowed in the castle, but look at her girl. She’s bleeding so much I don’t think she’s going to make it on her own.” Blackjack let out a series of snorts and grunts and Percy nodded. “Okay okay, so you can’t carry more than one person. I am going to strap the girl to your back and I’ll swim alongside you back to the castle okay?” The horse lowered her head in agreement, and Percy lifted the pirate girl onto his seahorse’s back. 

They swam with less urgency on their way back to the castle, the only thing racing them was the sun. They had to get back before Percy’s father awoke, but it turns out as a seahorse you have to move a lot slower when your passenger couldn’t hold on for themselves. It seemed like ages before they were out of the kelp forest and had the castle in sight, but the human girl was still unconscious on the mare’s back, every so often she would whimper as if she was in pain but never awoke. 

Blackjack whinnied nervously as they had to step out of view of one of the castle guards. “Why don’t I take her back to my quarters girl,” he said to his horse, lifting the human off her back, “I need you to go find Piper and Will. We need someone with medical knowledge to see if there’s anything we can do to help her… And well, I’ll have to leave my room as soon as father wakes up, and I don’t want to shock her into hurting herself, Piper’s always been good at calming people down.” The horse had swam a few feet away from where Percy waded, and nodded her head in agreement, swimming suddenly off in the direction of Piper and Will’s rooms of the castle.

Percy watched the castle entrance from the shadows just long enough to notice a pattern in the patrolling of his dad’s guards. He had a plan of how to get past them and up to his room, but he had to move fast. Percy raced through the front door of the castle and up the stairs that led to his room. He had to duck down a few corridors on his way but made it safely to his room and pushed his door shut forcefully with his tail. 

His arms were starting to sag with exhaustion as he lowered her onto the bed, she wasn’t heavy at all, especially under the waves, but forming the air bubble around her had taken a toll on him, he wasn’t used to using any of the sorcery associated with merpeople. She lay peacefully on the bed, her chest rising and falling slowly with each breath, but the air bubble around her seemed to be thinning. 

Percy floated over her, careful not to touch anything except her unhurt cheek. He let out more of his underwater magic and the air around her seemed to thicken and brighten, hopefully meaning that it might last a bit longer this time. Percy took a sharp slab of shell from off his nightstand and sliced up the side of her gag, the muted beige fabric floating slowly away from her cheeks showing the deep red creases in her skin that it left behind. He brought his makeshift knife up to the ropes tied around her chest and legs, but the shell broke while trying to cut through them. The prince cursed silently at the fact that he had just given all his weapons to his brother Tyson for upgrades.

He watched her breathing for a few moments before getting up from the bed. He nervously looked out the window, wondering where his horse was with his friends. The girls wound on her head was creating a small puddle of blood on Percy’s bed and he began swimming in circles anxiously.  _ Why were his friends taking so long? Had the guards caught them on their way to his room? Blackjack knew all the secret entrances to the castle, she wouldn’t have gotten caught.  _

Sand and particles of stone were swirling all around Percy’s tail as he swooshed back and forth across his room. He looked regardfully toward the human asleep in his bed, silently hoping Will would know what to do. Percy heard Blackjack galloping through the currents and some silent cursing coming from out of his window, he swam to it swiftly and saw his two friends, and his trusty steed silently making their way up to his window. Will was rubbing his tail thoughtfully and Piper and Blackjack snickered quietly, he must have gotten in the mare’s way. Blackjack had a tendency to just run things over if she wasn’t paying attention. 

“Okay Perc, what is it that’s so important that you had to wake us up in the middle of the night?” Will asked, drawing out the words giving him a complaining tone. Percy stood in his windowsill, blocking their view to his bed. Piper came swimming up to Will’s side and gave the black haired sea prince a quizzical raise of her eyebrow.

“What are you hiding from us Percy?” She asked thoughtfully, knowing that he was usually honest to a fault when it came to his friends. Percy looked them both in the eyes and lowered his voice, “you guys have to promise me that you won’t freak out. Please stay quiet and just, let me explain okay…” Percy trailed off, still standing protectively in the windowsill. 

His friends looked at him with compassion in their eyes, “Percy, we’ve known you for like seventeen years. Our moms’ were preggers at the same time. Of course we’ll trust you.” Piper said encouragingly.

“Okay man, you really are starting to freak me out though. Did you bring another injured bull shark into your room? Why did you have me grab all my medical supplies? Oh Neptune No!” Will dramatically shouted, “don’t tell me it’s another orca! They’re so big last time you had me heal one I used up all my healing salve!” Will jokingly complained. He seemed arrogant and cocky at times, but he had one of the biggest hearts Percy had known. The orange tailed merman couldn’t even hurt a shrimp without trying to save it. 

“Uh…” Percy slowly started, “it’s… it’s not a shark, or a whale.” He moved his tail and the bed came into view. The blond pirate was still bleeding, and breathing from her thin layer of air that Percy had created. Piper inhaled sharply and Will took a noticeable step back, hitting Percy in the shoulder. 

“Dude! Is that a human? You know we can’t have humans in the castle. I mean, how did you even… Percy how long has she been here? I haven’t ever been able to create an air bubble that lasts more than a few seconds.” Will looked slightly disappointed that Percy had outdone him in something medical related, but the human girl laying in his best friends bed was distracting him significantly from that.

“Uh… I don’t know, I just… well when I found her she was awake, but she passed out. Because, underwater. And I just…” Percy took a deep breath, his thoughts were all jumbled and he needed to stop stuttering. “I found her for a reason. And I couldn’t just leave her there. I had to help her. But I need your help too.” The prince looked anxiously into his friend's eyes, he needed to convince them to help him save her. He couldn’t exactly explain why, but he felt drawn to her, he knew she was the girl from his dreams and that had to mean something. The last time he had a dream that came true, well it was when he lost his mom. 

“This has to mean something, she has to mean something.” Percy muttered quietly, and Piper put her arm on his hand. “I’m with you Percy, I mean, my mom has been talking about stuff  that’s been happening above the oceans recently, and it can’t be a coincidence that this human just falls right into your father's kingdom in the midst of… whatever’s going on.” Percy recognized what Piper was talking about with her mother. He wasn’t totally sure what was going on yet but his father had been acting more and more secretive lately. Covering up missing mermaid cases and avoiding any question Percy asked regarding his mother’s murder or what’s been going on outside the kingdom. 

“Plus,” Piper chuckled slightly, her cheeks a little pink, “she is kind of cute. Didn’t you always say you wanted to date a blonde Percy?” She nudged his shoulder gently, as a form of mocking. Percy’s cheeks rose to a red almost as intense as the color of his tail and he shoved Piper playfully back, “That’s crazy! I just, I couldn’t leave her out there to die!” Percy tried looking as innocent as possible. Truthfully though, he felt much more drawn to the pirate than any of the mermaids around the kingdom. 

“Yes! Percy yes you could just leave her out there! She’s human! You can’t just take a human right into the heart of the kingdom. Percy I know first hand what humans can do to the ocean, to us. Do you know how many people I have to treat in the infirmary for propeller wounds, toxic garbage poisoning, how many hooks I’ve had to pull out of tails and faces. She isn’t just some helpless animal. She’s dangerous.” Piper instinctively stepped between Will and Percy, both her boys had stubborn personalities and were quick to temper about things they were passionate about. Percy would never let someone go unhelped, and was extremely loyal to his friends. But Will, underneath all his positivity and sunshine, held deep grudges and would impulsively express his anger when it roared. 

Five years ago, Will’s older brother had been caught in a large boats fishing net in Atlantic waters. Will got caught as well, but had escaped. He swam along his brother for miles trying to get him free. But when the net rose it took his brother with it anyway. Will waited under the waves for any sign of his brother being tossed back into the ocean, but all that sunk back into the water was a dried up husk of what once was a merman. 

Percy’s face gentled slightly, he knew that what had happened to Will was traumatic but, “Will, I know what you’re going through, the same people that killed your brother… Will you know they killed my mom too.” He put his hand on the golden merman’s shoulder. 

“She’s not one of them Will, you and Percy saw for yourselves the people on that ship, they weren’t pirates, they were fisherman. And if Percy thinks she’s important, than we have to too.” Piper said surely.

Will sighed audibly and cracked his knuckles. He nodded, agreeing to help despite his fears. Swishing his tail around he reached into his medic bag. “So Percy, do you know how she sustained any of her injuries? And are these three the only injuries present?” Will’s voice had become confident and authoritative as his training kicked in. “Um, yeah, those are the only three places she looked hurt. I don’t know how any of it happened. I tried to cut off her bindings,” Percy gestured to the ropes around her, “but I didn’t have anything strong enough.” 

Will lifted a scalpel with a sharp and shiny edge from out of his bags. He slid one hand under the ropes and sliced them from the girl's body. Percy was hovering over Will and the young doctor annoyingly looked up at him. “Hey Percy, how about instead of invading my personal space bubble you find me some of the healing salve somewhere in my bag.” Will knew distracting Percy from the blood and brokenness of the girl he’d brought back to his room was was the only way they’d actually get focused enough to save her. 

The pirate had lost a lot of blood and it was still oozing out of her neck, staining the water pink. Will had applied sharp pressure to the girl's neck wound, and was bandaging it with the salve and some seaweed when the small corner shaped gouge in her head started bleeding profusely. The young mer-doctor knew that head wounds bled more than most others, and if he didn’t want the shark guards of the castle to follow the smell up to Percy’s room they had to stop her bleeding soon. 

Piper handed will what looked like a large band aid, she held a square of woven seaweed in her hands. “For her head, it will help absorb the bleeding,” and it worked. As soon as Will brought the square into the thin air bubble surrounding her it dried, becoming an almost sponge like consistency. He grabbed more of the salve from Percy, who had calmed down significantly since they had begun healing her. Pressing the makeshift band aid to her head Will had Percy tie a thin rope of seaweed around it, securing it to her. 

Percy moved his hand to where her cheekbone lay bruised and almost indented. Will narrowed his eyes with a worried look. “Perc, man, I don’t know if there’s anything I can do for her here. We don’t, well humans break a lot more than us. And every time I’ve healed an animal with broken bones I’ve been able to strap some sort of cast to it, but this is one her face.” He met Percy’s eyes, who gave off a pleading look, “Will...Didn’t you learn some water magic stuff at school...you don’t think anything you learned there might help?” 

Will remembered learning some basic healing techniques and hydrokinesis skills he learned in school. Most mermaids these days weren’t very skilled in ocean magic, but there were still some small tricks of specific trades that got passed down. The medic's ability to heal. The forges skill with metals. The more adventurous merpeople learned things like moving the water around, though their kingdom hadn’t seen anyone be able to do more than cool tricks with bubbles in decades. 

Will closed his eyes and scrunched his eyebrows together, he moved Percy’s hand out of the way gently and lay his on top of the girls face. Will could feel the bones under her skin as if they were in his own body, Will winced- as often as he performed this healing magic at his school and work he never got used to absorbing someone else’s pain. Percy put a hand on his back thankfully and reassuringly. Will could feel the bones stichting themselves back into place, not fully healed, but at least in the write shape and position. His hand fell away from the human’s face and his tail went out from under him. 

Percy and Piper caught Will before he hit the floor, his head lolling to Piper’s side. Whenever he healed someone using raw underwater power instead of salves and potions it took almost all the energy out of him. They dragged him over to a small couch Percy had on the wall of Blackjack’s stall. The green and yellow sponge softened as they lay their friend on it. Will flops his orange tail a few times after snuggling against the soft couch. 

“He does this a lot more than you’d think Percy,” Piper gestured to the sleeping boy, “Not this intensely, but with all of your dads army getting injured so frequently the medics have had to take up old ways of healing the pod.” Piper explained shortly. She and Will had spent more time together without Percy recently, as his father had been becoming more and more strict, but he didn’t mind, as they always seemed to break him out of the castle for their adventures. 

“I hope he’s having fun there.” Percy said swimming away from Will, “he really has a talent for this stuff.” Percy thoughtfully mentioned as he swam closer to the sleeping girl. She was still pale and drew ragged breaths, but the bleeding from her neck and head had stopped and he cheek was still a deep purple, but not misshapen. 

“Percy, what are you going to do with her? Why do you think you found her?” Piper questioned the prince thoughtfully, her colorful eyes wide with curiosity. She kept looking from him to the girl and back again. Percy opened his mouth to respond when the two merteens heard knocking at his door. 

They looked terrified at one another as a booming voice came from the other side, “Son! I am sorry about last night. I know we both have tempers, but listen, you still need to perform your princely duties. There is a council meeting in ten minutes that you should be a part of. People won’t respect you unless you seem like a solid heir to the throne.” Poseidon said all of this firmly to his son through the abalone door. Piper looked at Percy with tender eyes, she had never seen directly how Percy’s mom’s death affected the way the king treated his kid. She remembered when they were kids and the king hadn’t even expected Percy to be next in line, he’d have let him be a kelp forest explorer if that’s what he pleased. But ever since that night their relationship hadn’t been the same, no fatherly compassion, no son-like respect or admiration.

“If you don’t come out son I will have to send guards in to come and get you. You are needed at this meeting.” Percy’s father stated again, raising his voice slightly. Will moaned and Percy coughed to cover it up “Yeah dad!” He shouted, “just waking up, I’ll be there before it starts don’t worry.” he shouted to his dad in an effort to get him to go away. The pirate girl still lay unconscious and now they had the unconscious medic on their hands too. 

“Piper, can you do me a favor?” Percy asked his childhood friend, his eyes pleading. “Don’t worry Perc, I can watch over them while you’re gone. If she wakes up I think I can calm here down. Just hurry back okay? When Will wakes up I’m not sure he won’t try and wake the girl causing her to panic.” The caramel toned mermaid voiced smoothly as she sat on the couch next to Will. Piper motioned from her eyes to the girl, as if mimicking watching her and smiled, “now go Percy, before your dad or anyone else comes in here.”

“Thank you Pipes, you have no idea how grateful I am. I owe you one okay?” Percy said a little too quickly as he tried to sneak out the door. And with a wave of his hand he shut the door. Every couple seconds Percy would turn back to look at his room door, feeling anxious about leaving the girl alone. But he glided to the meeting room nonetheless. 

Percy sat anxiously in the war room, nothing on his mind but that blonde stranger, _who was she? What had happened to her?_ he thought obsessively. The young prince couldn't care less about the politics of his father's kingdom, these meetings had always bored him, but his father made him sit through them to “shape him into the leader that will inherit his legacy”. Percy thought sourly, _why did it matter if he was a good ruler now, he had years before he would have to be king._ Poseidon looked over at Percy and he knew he was caught with his head in the seafoam. 

“Percy, is there somewhere more important you have to be?” his father’s voice boomed. “No sir, I'm sorry” the prince quickly replied. They had interrupted the lieutenant that was talking, it just happened to be Piper’s mom, who glared at her king with annoyance.  “King Poseidon, does the matter we’re discussing even involve your son directly? You should let him go train or hang out with his friends.” She said, her voice mimicking the calm sweetness of Piper’s. 

“Yes actually, he does have to be here Aphrodite. He and your daughter actually were caught yesterday by the caves and caverns beyond the kelp forest. With everything that’s happening lately…” Poseidon trailed off, but Percy spoke again before Aphrodite got the chance, “You say I have to be here father. That I should know better than to go exploring, and need to set an example for the rest of the kingdom. But how can I do any of that when I don’t even know what’s going on. You brought me into this council meeting, now tell me what’s going on.” 

Lieutenant Aphrodite took his question, a very serious look on her face. “Okay Percy, you make a good point. We should tell you what’s been going on…  in fact, Poseidon,” she spoke now directly her attention to the king and the rest of the council, “I have some frightening news to report. All of my scouting squads have gone missing. Triton, you said that three of your details have come back with those dried husks of soldiers. Something serious is coming. And we have to be ready.” Aphrodite looked around at all the stunned council faces, Triton nodding sadly, Poseidon looking stoic, and most other faces looking afraid. 

Percy’s mouth had dropped open, and his tail was swirling around anxiously. His father shot him a vicious look, “Percy, I think that’s enough for today. You were right Aphrodite, he doesn’t need to hear this. Stay in the castle and don’t leave. If I catch you out again expect worse than grounding son.” His father threatened as guards stepped toward Percy, urging him out the door. “But father!” He protested, “I want to help, please.” The king looked at him with an almost sad expression on his face. “Son, I will keep you updated I promise. It is just safest, best for now if you stay in your room.” Poseidon directed his attention back toward the council. 

“So Triton, are you’re soldiers who survived able to speak with us…?” Percy heard his father say as he left the council room. He had usually been kicked out of meetings for his disrespect, not for his own safety. But his brain didn’t have enough space to worry about the missing mermaids from the army, it was occupied with the blonde human who he had left in his room. He glided through the water up to his room as fast as he could. 

Bursting through his door without even knocking Percy caused Piper to yell, waking Will from his slumber. “Hey guys! Sorry that took so long Beauty Queen. Looks like you’re finally up Will, or should I call you Sleeping Beauty?” Percy joked with him before turning his attention to the girl. “Is she still asleep? Has she not woken up?” Percy nervously questioned his friends, “Will is this normal?”

The blonde merman shook his head with a shrug. “Honestly Percy I’ve never healed a human before, I’m not really sure what’s going to happen.” He wrung his hands out anxiously, and Percy let out a sigh. “Just leave me some of the medicine from your bag will you? In case she wakes up and needs it” 

The two merpeople looked from the girl and back to Percy, “you sure we can leave you alone man?” Will asked, pulling some vials and sea plants out of his bag. Percy looked at the sundial and nodded, “you both have to get to your classes. Just, maybe stop by after school? Hopefully she’ll be up by then and we can figure out what in Neptune’s name is happening.” Percy tried his best to put a smile on his overly exhausted face, but his friends bought it.

“We’ll be back in a few hours Perc” Piper said as the two merteens squeezed out of the window to sneak back out of the castle. “Good luck! If she wakes up don’t scare her away!” Piper winked at him and he watched their white and orange tails disappearing down into the castle. 

Percy unwillingly let out a large yawn and focused on Blackjack, who was looking a little bit upset that two merteens had just pushed passed her. He knew that Will had done all he could for the girl, and he knew that she was breathing, so it was just a matter of time before she woke up. But he still didn’t want to fall asleep, as he had led a complete stranger, a human stranger right into the heart of his castle, and he couldn’t help but worry about her safety. Percy walked toward Blackjack, stroking her muzzle slowly, yawning again. His seahorse nickered at him loudly, motioning her head toward the bed. 

“I know I need sleep girl, but I can’t sleep without knowing that she’ll be okay and not get caught by some guards or something.” Blackjack whinnied, kicking the window leading out of her stall closed, she puffed up her chest as if to tell him  _ I won’t let her get out this way.  _ She also nudged the vials he had in his hands and lowered her head. Percy could tell that if the pirate woke up or needed anything Blackjack would be able to get his attention. He went to the front door and locked it so no one could come in. He was still worried about falling asleep, but as he yawned again, his eyes lidded, he knew his brain didn’t have much of a choice in the matter and his tail curled up in a circle on the bed and his head fell onto the pillow next to the blonde pirate’s. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also we are introducing some of the mysterious antagonist in this chapter, so be on the look out for more information and conflict with this particular enemy in the next couple chapters. Again I really appreciate all the kudos!! and I do hope I'm uploading frequently enough for you guys. Still love hearing all the comments and always open to hear what you guys think about the chapter.


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into the ship Jupiter's Revenge. We'll explore Hazel's crazy dreams, her worries for Frank, Reyna's temper for the first time, and Octavian's attempt at talking himself out of his problems. And the ship gets attacked by something big bad and crazy! Stay tuned to see who makes it out alive (:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I'm so sorry guys it's finals week right now so I might post a couple days late but chapter 3 is still on its way!! Thank you guys for being patient I really appriciate all the kudos!!

It will be up soon, school had been very hectic this past week. Thank you all so much for hanging in there!! And stay tuned for a chapter about Jupiters Revenge and how Reyna kicks butt. (:

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave comments giving me advice on it also, love hearing everyone's opinions (:


End file.
